Origins and Revolutions
Human Identity in Earliest Prehistory

A theoretically innovative work charting the prehistory of innovations essential for every student and scholar of prehistory.

Clive Gamble (Author)

9780521677493, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 April 2007

366 pages, 30 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm, 0.483 kg

'… dense with provocative ideas, fresh points of view, an intellectual background that ranges far and wide between academic disciplines and schools of thought … this book should be read by professionals and graduate students as an eye-opener to alternative narratives of human evolution … an intriguing book …' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

In this study Clive Gamble presents and questions two of the most famous descriptions of change in prehistory. The first is the 'human revolution', when evidence for art, music, religion and language first appears. The second is the economic and social revolution of the Neolithic period. Gamble identifies the historical agendas behind 'origins research' and presents a bold alternative to these established frameworks, relating the study of change to the material basis of human identity. He examines, through artefact proxies, how changing identities can be understood using embodied material metaphors and in two major case-studies charts the prehistory of innovations, asking, did agriculture really change the social world? This is an important and challenging book that will be essential reading for every student and scholar of prehistory.

Acknowledgments
Part I. Steps to the Present: Prologue: the longest of long revolutions
1. The neolithic revolution
2. The human revolution
3. Metaphors for origins
Part II. The Material Basis of Identity: 4. Bodies, instruments and containers: 5. The accumulation and enchainment of identity
6. Consuming and fragmenting people and things
Part III. Interpreting Change: 7. A prehistory of human thechnology: 3 million to 5000 thousand years ago
8. Did agriculture change the world?
Epilogue: the good upheaval.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ], Anthropology [JHM], Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA]